A range of threat-monitoring systems are used to protect people and property from harm, loss or intrusion. Such systems include systems to detect fire, smoke, gas and other abnormal environmental conditions, as well as security systems such as surveillance systems, perimeter integrity monitoring systems, intrusion detection systems and access control or the like. Depending on the system requirements, such monitoring systems may be used for either or both of detecting or verifying threats.
Because of the often dire outcomes associated with failure of such systems, there is often a need for these systems to comply with legislative standards for operation. It is therefore not feasible to offer in-field capability upgrades for such systems. If in-field upgradable capabilities are provided, these are typically only able to be manually installed by authorised technicians and thus are difficult and are expensive to perform.
Accordingly, it will be desirable to have systems and methods in place which enable and facilitate in-field upgradability of threat-monitoring systems.
Users of threat threat-monitoring systems may have multiple software licences, and a desire to be able to directly control what software is used on which systems, and when those licences are to be active. The manufacturer, or licensee, of the software, however, may desire use of the software to be controlled so that a user is not able to use a licence to operate the software on more systems than the licence is intended for.
Furthermore, some premises will be confronted with changing security requirements during the lifetime of the monitoring system. For example, in video surveillance systems, additional cameras may be needed, or additional or other video detection and verification services might be required to meet changing the scope of the deployed services. In performance-critical systems, such as threat-monitoring systems, there is an additional challenge that the hardware needs to be validated, so providing an ability to add hardware poses a risk that third party providers can provide non-validated hardware that does not meet performance requirements.
The construction industry is one example of an industry in which changing security requirements pose a challenge. In this industry monitoring systems are typically installed for a certain duration only. Once the contracted monitoring period has expired, the monitoring devices are taken back from the construction site and used for the next construction site project. Typically the next project will have other requirements and needs for services on the monitoring device. Therefore there is a challenge in being able to manage these changing requirements on the monitoring devices(s) in a simple but effective manner.
The inventors of the present invention have also determined that in order and facilitate in-field upgradability of threat threat-monitoring systems it may, in some cases, be advantageous or necessary to implement the upgrading process and its supporting systems in a way that ensures ‘fail safe’ operation of the systems.
Reference to any prior art in the specification is not an acknowledgment or suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in any jurisdiction or that this prior art could reasonably be expected to be understood, regarded as relevant, and/or combined with other pieces of prior art by a skilled person in the art.